Manager reveals plans for new restaurant

By MARK NEWMAN Courier staff writer

April 16, 2007 11:08 pm

— OTTUMWA — The construction at the old Maid Rite shop on Market Street is no longer a mystery. A casual family restaurant will serve Chicago-style pizza and slow-smoked barbecue.
The manager, who has kept the project quiet for weeks, said Monday she hopes Wiggleville Road Pizza and Smokehouse will open in mid-June or July.
“We’re really excited about all the revitalization going on in the area and are really happy to be downtown in the midst of it,” said Mindy Beekman of Ottumwa. She added that the family-oriented restaurant would be a non-smoking facility.
“We’ll be open for lunch and dinner,” said Larry Stein, the Des Moines restaurateur and food consultant who, along with his partners, owns Wiggleville Road.
It’s his recipes they hope will keep customers happy.
“We’ll have a true slow-smoker upstairs [using] hickory to smoke pork ribs and beef ribs, we’ll have pork sandwiches, beef sandwiches, some entree salads: a good selection of stuff,” he said.
The pizza is different, too.
“Chicago-style pizza is a cross between a deep-dish and a hand-tossed [pizza],” said Beekman.
“The crust is very good,” explained Stein. “It’s a pizza baked in a pan, a black-steel, seasoned pan with olive oil; it’s a rich buttery tasting crust.”
He said he’s really proud of a recipe he developed to end a meal, too.
“We’ll have a couple very unique dessert pizzas, by the slice,” he said.
One example?
“Do you remember the caramel apples you had as a kid? Our Taffy Apple Dessert Pizza has the same ingredients and is served cold or hot with a scoop of ice cream.”
But why would a restaurant call itself Wiggleville Road?
According to folk history, Beekman said legendary crime figures from Chicago would “wiggle” in and out of the east end of Ottumwa during the roaring 1920s.
Mark Newman can be reached at 683-5358 or by e-mail at mgnewman@mchsi.com.